Heidi Chen, PhD
I am research associate professor of biostatistics and a full-time biostatistician in the Vanderbilt Center for Quantitative Sciences. I have over ten years of experience in biostatistical consulting. I received my Ph.D. in biomathematics from North Carolina State University. My Ph.D. training focused on applying mathematical, statistical and computational methods to fit models for biological systems. Since joining the Department of Biostatistics, part of my daily service involves high dimensional data analysis of gene microarray, protein/lipid MALDI-TOF and radiomic imaging of lung nodule data. The techniques of high dimensional data have made it possible to apply molecular/imaging signatures to establish a more precise prediction for cancer disease. My methodological research interests focus on statistical methodology development in high-dimensional data analysis, especially in the area of internal validation of a prediction model. As a biostatistician, my contribution to my collaborators is applying the most appropriate statistical analysis method to avoid overfitting and educate the MD students and junior researcher the concept on the statistical method I apply.